1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning device and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been an image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic system wherein a residual toner adhering to the surface of an image carrier (e.g., photoreceptor drum etc.), on which a toner image is to be formed, is removed by making a cleaning blade slidably contract with the surface of the image carrier.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H 6-27860 discloses a cleaning device equipped with a plurality of cleaning blades to come into press contact with the surface of an image carrier, the cleaning blades being arranged so that the hardness of a cleaning blade arranged downstream in the moving direction of the image carrier is relatively lower than the hardness of a cleaning blade arranged upstream.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-162667 discloses a cleaning device for removing the toner remaining on the surface of an image carrier with cleaning blades, the cleaning device provided with two or more cleaning blades made of materials having different resilient modulus respectively, and the two or more cleaning blades simultaneously abutting against the surface of the image carrier to clean the surface.
Furthermore, when performing the removal of residual toner, it is necessary to make it easy to remove the toner adhering to the surface of an image carrier, and to reduce the wear of the image carrier and a cleaning blade.
Accordingly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-251751 discloses a technique of applying a lubricant to an image carrier. For example, a technique of removing the toner remaining on the surface of a photoreceptor with a cleaning blade, applying a lubricant to the surface of the photoreceptor, which has become clean, with a brush roller, and smoothing the applied lubricant with a lubricant smoothing blade to form a thin layer of the lubricant, has been disclosed.
A cleaning device, like the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-251751, aiming at uniformly applying a lubricant to the surface of an image carrier by smoothing the lubricant, however, has the problem of the occurrence of filming. The filming in this case is caused by an external additive, which has been added to the toner, remaining to be removed and sticking to the surface of the image carrier.